No Question About That - a Manchester United podcast

#1056 | Ed and Daniel pick through Manchester United 1-1 Tottenham, a game United led until the 92nd minute but in which they played badly for most of the 90. The first half was as poor as anything this season, with Spurs running through United’s midfield at will. One side was moving, the other standing still. Carrick’s changes on the hour briefly changed the game, including a positive cameo from Carlos Baleba. But after Spurs were reduced to 10 men, United went into their shell and produced some more comedy defending.

Where does Michael Carrick go from here, especially with Tuesday’s trip to Atletico coming up fast, and a very difficult schedule ahead. Nobody at the club wants another manager change but we’ve seen this film before.

0:00 Match reaction: United 1-1 Spurs
2:15 Squad building and transfers
8:25 Tactical analysis: pressing and intensity
15:50 Accountability and selection
24:15 Baleba
31:10 Red card
40:30 Manager future and fixtures
53:20 Atletico preview and sign-off

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#1055 | Ed and Dharnish talk about Manchester City's cheating three weeks on from the verdict and with the appeal under way. City's “it was government money” defence falls apart when the government, the sponsors, and the owner turn out to be one family. With club and fan denial hardening, the likeliest exit is a sale, or a vote to expel if City keep fighting.

There's some chat about why Financial Fair Play was created in the first place, Andy Burnham and the UAE’s investments in the UK, and what Guardiola knew.

Then it’s back to the football with Spurs on Saturday. Sesko is ruled out and Dorgu is injured. Will Cunha play through the middle again, what's the right balance in midfield as Baleba returns, and is there a case for Yoro’s pace at centre-back after his France debut?

The episode finishes with Ronaldo’s complaint over his Portugal minutes against Messi’s emotional send-off, and Ferguson’s book tour and what he said about living to see the new stadium.

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0:00 Intro: Spurs, City and Fergie

1:36 City’s CPC defence

7:53 Abu Dhabi, power and the exit route

16:51 FFP, the appeal and Burnham

24:56 What did Pep know?

30:05 Spurs preview: team news, midfield and Yoro

44:32 Ronaldo and Messi

50:42 Fergie and the new stadium

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#1054 | Ed and Paul pick through the fall out from City’s guilty verdict and conclude this is a geopolitical story more than football. The outcome might well owe more to diplomacy than to Premier League rules. Andy Burnham's situation and UK ties to Abu Dhabi suggest where the pressure is coming from.

There’s a long look at the City fanbase: why will so few will engage with the evidence or a reasonable discussion about what’s happened? How did a club that was once the punchline become the vehicle of a state?

There’s the damages bill that could run into billions and whether the other 19 clubs would really vote to expel. Could the only clean exit be a settlement fund and a forced change of ownership?

0:00 The guilty verdict
2:54 A geopolitical story
9:42 CAS 2020, six emails and the redactions
15:03 Financial doping
27:18 Why City fans won't engage
30:40 Who's who in Abu Dhabi
39:31 Was FFP ever a fair rule?
47:00 Lawsuits, damages and expulsion
55:36 Can titles be reassigned?
1:02:36 Settlement and getting the owners out
1:12:29 Wrap

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#1053 | Daniel joins Ed to make the case that this was never really a football story: Manchester City's ownership is Abu Dhabi's ruling family operating through the exact same statecraft logic they apply to war, espionage and geopolitics. And that family’s refusal to ever hear the word "no" from anyone. It’s the instinct that produced the fraud itself.

Trace the money and the politics: Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth, the family network tying the state, the investment vehicle, the sponsors and the football club into one entity. Then there’s Andy Burnham's startlingly weak public response, read against his own history with City-linked land deals in East Manchester and the UK's broader security and investment ties to the UAE.

Pep Guardiola is linked in the same way. His public advocacy on Gaza and Catalan independence is impossible to square with total silence on his own owners' role in Sudan. His City trophies cannot be separated from dirty money and the questions of doping that have followed his career since Barcelona. This is potentially the biggest scandal in the history of sport, precisely because of the geopolitics layered underneath it.

0:00 Intro: City found guilty
2:30 From anti-competitive to human rights
4:39 Statecraft, sovereign wealth and sportswashing
6:58 Paper trail and the defence
14:55 Andy Burnham and Manchester politics
23:36 Punishment, lawsuits and a forced sale
37:48 Guardiola's hypocrisy and his legacy
47:52 Biggest scandal of all time? Wrap-up

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#1052 | Jamie's latest Substack note gets the deep dive treatment: United's newly published loan documents show a real, dated path to finally clearing the $550 million Glazer-era LBO debt. The new notes are repayable at par with no further interest from 10 June 2029, but only if it's tied to a "stadium financing event," with a matching change-of-control clause built to let INEOS take a majority stake without triggering repayment. It’s complicated but clear.

Jamie's model puts the realistic cost for a new stadium closer to £3.2 billion once a typical overrun is applied to the headline £2 billion figure, funded through some mix of club debt, owner equity, and external partners. Personal seat licences could plausibly raise several hundred million pounds on its own.

The pod opens with City with Ed and Jamie still processing last week's guilty verdict and the Premier League timeline that could produce a sanction within months.

Jamie's note mentioned in the pod: https://spgoals.substack.com/p/can-ineos-clear-manchester-uniteds

And for my take on last week's finances: https://nqatpod.substack.com/p/uniteds-new-cash-machine

0:27 Intro
2:38 City verdict and timelines
6:15 What punishment fits the breach
12:14 Premier League credibility and expulsion
15:45 United's refinancing note explained
26:17 Ineos' path to majority ownership
29:26 Stadium cost and funding options
42:31 Squad budget and wrap-up

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